


Unusual Suspects

by kitlee625, Sarahastro



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV)
Genre: Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-23
Updated: 2014-01-23
Packaged: 2018-01-09 19:01:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1149657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kitlee625/pseuds/kitlee625, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sarahastro/pseuds/Sarahastro
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The detectives of the Brooklyn Nine-Nine investigate a series of burglaries where it almost seems like the thief is invisible. But that’s impossible, right? A Brooklyn Nine-Nine/Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. crossover.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unusual Suspects

Peralta sighed as he and Santiago surveyed the latest crime scene. “What did he steal this time?”

She checked her notebook. “Cash, jewelry, a laptop, and a complete set of Battlestar Galactica DVDs.”

“This is insane,” he complained. “This guy steals all this stuff in broad daylight, and no one ever sees a thing. It’s like he’s invisible or something.” He paused. “The Invisible Bandit. That’s a good nickname.”

Santiago gave him a withering look. “He’s not invisible, Jake. That’s impossible.”

“Um, aliens invaded New York a year ago. I’d say anything’s possible.”

She rolled her eyes. “What do you want to do first?”

“Well, the building has cameras up in the hallway. We can start by going through that.”

“It’s going to be a dead end,” she argued. “Like you said, no one ever sees a thing, and he’s never been caught on camera.”

“Well the windows are still locked, so he must have come through the hall. He’s got to be on that tape somewhere.”

“Fine. While you’re staring at hours of security footage, I’m going back to the precinct to call local pawn shops, and find out if he’s tried to sell any of the stolen jewelry.”

“Be sure and ask if they’ve seen any faceless men wrapped up all in bandages. Or Kevin Bacon.” Santiago just stared at him blankly, so he said, “You know, Hollow Man? Nothing? Never mind.”

*****

When Peralta finally returned, he was grinning triumphantly with a sullen-looking young woman in tow. “Victory is mine,” he said as he passed by Santiago’s desk. “I told you looking into the security footage was a good idea.”

“She was on the tape?”

“No clue actually. When I got the tape, I found that someone had hacked the feed and recorded over the part that took place during the burglary. I traced the IP address the hacker used and found this little scoundrel.”

Santiago gave the young woman a doubtful look. “She’s a kid. She looks like she’s on her way to the mall.”

“Well how’s your lead coming?”

By the depth of Santiago’s scowl it was clear that it was not going well.

Holt came out of his office. “Peralta, Santiago. I just got a call that there’s been another burglary. Same MO as your guy.”

Santiago leapt up from her desk. “Jake just brought in a suspect. I’m on it.”

*****

Even though the hacker looked like a kid, she was remarkably unfazed sitting in the interrogation room. Peralta watched her through the window for a while hoping to get her to sweat, but she looked totally relaxed, almost bored.

When he entered, he immediately slammed her file on the table. She did not flinch. “Look, we’ve got you dead to rights,” he said. “You might as well save yourself some time and confess.”

“Yeah, that’s not going to happen.”

“Fine, we can do this the hard way.” For some reason, she smiled a little bit at that. “What’s your name?”

“Skye.”

“Your real name.”

“Skye.”

“Okay fine, Skye. Tell me everything you know about the Invisible Bandit.”

“The who?”

“The guy who’s been robbing people in broad daylight. I call him the Invisible Bandit.”

“That name makes him sound like some lame comic book character.”

“No, it makes him sound like a super cool comic book character. Anyway, I know you’re working with him. I caught you helping him erase his tracks. So who is he?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Fine if that’s how you want to play it, we’ll just book you for tampering with evidence. You’ll go to jail while your invisible friend gets away with all the cash.”

Skye rolled her eyes. “You don’t have any idea what’s really going on, do you?”

*****

The scene should have already been secured before Santiago arrived, but when she got there she heard two people arguing.

“Are you sure the device is working?”

“Of course it works. If we’re not getting a signal, it’s because the readings you gave me were incorrect.”

“There was nothing wrong with my readings!”

“Well there’s nothing wrong with the device.”

Santiago slipped through the door and tried to stay hidden as she observed the people in front of her. A young man and a young woman were huddled around some sort of device in the center of the room that was emitting an eerie blue light.

“Maybe he wasn’t involved in this robbery. This area does have a rather high crime rate,” the woman said.

“How many criminals could pull off something like this? It has to be Wells.” The man fiddled with the device, and it began to hum a low frequency. The light changed from blue to a pale green, and where it fell it seemed to illuminate handprints and footprints.

The woman squeezed his arm. “We did it, Fitz. Now we just need to calibrate the portable illuminator for Ward, and he can find him.”

“Good because I’m feeling a bit peckish. I wonder -”

Before he could finish his thought the device’s hum turned into an angry whine. Santiago ducked behind a cabinet right before the device exploded. When the dust had settled she jumped up with her gun outstretched. She was not sure who these people were or what they had been doing, but she knew it was not good. She had to bring them in and sort it out.

“Freeze! NYPD!”

The man and woman exchanged a horrified look and slowly raised their hands above their heads.

*****

“- but our phones didn’t have any signal, and Fitz gets very cranky when he’s hungry -”

Santiago held up her hand. “You lost me, Ms. Simmons. Now start over, and just answer the question. What were you doing in the apartment?”

“That’s what I was trying to explain. We were, uh, we were a little bit lost trying to find someplace to have lunch -” She spoke so haltingly that it was clear that she was making this up as she went along.

“So you went inside an apartment building and broke into someone’s apartment?”

“Well, we thought we might find someone in the area who could help,” she said weakly.

“Is this guy Fitz your boyfriend?”

“Fitz? Oh no. He’s my partner. Scientifically, not romantically.”

“So you work together. Did you build that device together?”

“Well sort of, but that sort of thing is more Fitz’s area of expertise, not mine.”

“What is your area of expertise?”

“Biochem.”

“So what was this device supposed to do?”

Simmons froze. “Well, ah, that is to say … it’s a bit difficult to explain, but it does have a use in - um - a particular situation.”

“Like blowing things up?”

“Oh no, that was an accident! I’m not sure why that happened. Fitz and I weren’t able to analyze any of the components before you arrested us. It might have something to do with a current surge in the solenoid, or perhaps the EM field overloaded the -”

Santiago held up a hand to stop her. “So you accidentally broke into a crime scene, and then you accidentally blew it up.”

Simmons cowered under Santiago’s glare. “Um… yes?”

Santiago stared at her for a while, but Simmons did not say anything else. Finally Santiago stood up. “I’ll be right back.”

“So you got nothing either, huh?” Peralta said to Santiago when she entered the observation room.

Santiago sighed. “She just keeps repeating the same ridiculous story about trying to find a place to have lunch. She’s clearly lying, but I haven’t been able to get the truth out of her.”

“I couldn’t get much out of my guy either. He admitted that he made that thing that exploded, and I think he tried to tell me what it was, but I couldn’t understand a word he said. He also kept asking for snacks.”

“How’s it going guys?” Boyle asked as he came into the observation room.

“Not good. I can’t believe we finally got three suspects, and none of them are talking,” Santiago complained.

“Well two of them are talking,” Peralta said. “A lot. They just might as well be speaking Chinese. It’s like listening to Data from Star Trek.”

“You watch Star Trek?” Santiago smirked.

Peralta shrugged. “I’ve seen a few episodes.”

“Well I may have something that could help,” Boyle said. “I went to the rest of the pawn shops, and one of the owners remembered a guy named Griffin Wells who has been bringing in a lot of stuff recently.”

“Fitz mentioned someone named Wells at the crime scene,” Santiago said.

Peralta nodded. “He must be our guy. Any criminal record?”

“Not exactly. He moved to Brooklyn from Chicago a couple of years ago, and he was questioned about his involvement in a couple of robberies back there but never charged with anything.”

“Nice work, Boyle. Do you have an address? Peralta and I will go stake it out.”

Peralta grabbed his jacket. “My car or your car?”

“Ew. My car.”

“Fine, but we’re stopping by my car on the way. I need to get my stakeout bag. I’m feeling snacky.”

*****

Santiago parked down the street from Wells’ apartment building. From their spot they had a good view of the front entrance to wait for Wells to come home.

“So this blows your whole invisible man theory,” Santiago said. “Wells is just a regular guy. He started stealing stuff in Chicago and has upped his game in Brooklyn.”

“Hey, just because he was visible to the pawn shop owner doesn’t mean that he can’t be invisible other times. How else was he going to get money for the things he stole?”

Santiago rolled her eyes. “I can’t believe you made me stop for snacks on the way.”

“I was running low on nuts. We ate a lot on our last stakeout. Besides, this way we have some variety. Slim Jim?”

“Ew. No. Give me some nuts.”

“Only if you catch them in your mouth.”

“No! I don’t want to get nuts in my car.”

“Then don’t miss.” Peralta tossed a few in her direction. After a few misses she managed to get a few. “See.”

They sat in front of the building for hours without catching sight of Wells.

“Maybe he slipped past us while invisible,” Peralta suggested. 

Santiago rolled her eyes. “Jake - hey, what’s that?” She pointed at the side of the building where a man was running down the fire escape. A woman and a second man were chasing after him.

“It’s Wells, but who’s that behind him?”

They got out of the car and ran towards the alley. By the time they got there the man and woman had caught up with Wells and were fighting with him. They clearly had a lot of martial arts training, especially the woman. She kicked Wells in the stomach, and he doubled over and fell backwards into a pile of trash.

Peralta glanced at Santiago. “Do you want to take the woman, and I’ll take the dude, or …?”

Santiago glared at him. “We have guns.”

“Oh, right.” They turned to Wells and his assailants. “Freeze! NYPD! Hands in the air!”

The man and woman took off running in opposite directions. Peralta moved closer to where he had seen Wells go down, but there was nothing. Somehow he must have escaped as well, although Peralta had no idea how. He did not have time to think about that though. He and Santiago split up after the man and woman, but lost them after only a few blocks.

“Well that was a total bust,” Santiago said when they met up back at the car.

“Did you see the moves on those two? They were like ninjas.”

“Admit it, you were afraid of them.”

“And you weren’t?”

“We have guns.”

“And those guys can probably dodge bullets like in The Matrix.”

As Peralta started doing his best Matrix impression, Santiago rolled her eyes and got into the car. “Let’s go back to the precinct. We can pull images from the traffic cams in the area to ID these guys.”

*****

“Excuse me.”

Gina looked up from her computer to see one of the most handsome men she had ever seen smiling at her. She stared open-mouthed at him.

“I was hoping you could help me. I’m looking for someone.”

“I give up. You found me.”

“Actually I’m looking for one of my clients. I got a call that she was being held here at the station. Her name is Skye.”

“Your client? Are you her pimp or her drug dealer?”

“I’m her lawyer.”

“Too bad. I’ll get the detective for you.” Without taking her eyes off of him, she yelled, “Hey Jake! There’s a man here for you!”

Peralta had overheard them and came over to the man. “So you’re Skye’s lawyer? What’s your name?”

“William Sutton.” The man handed him a business card. “I’d like to see my client now.”

Peralta gestured at Boyle. “Detective Boyle will escort you.”

“I will?”

“Yes, you will.”

Boyle nodded. “Okay. This way.”

As soon as they were out of earshot Peralta grabbed the case file. Although neither he or Santiago had gotten a good look at the man or woman in the alley, when they pulled footage from all of the nearby traffic cams, they had been able to get good shots of each of them. The guy looked different dressed in a nice suit and wearing glasses, but he was still recognizable as the man who had been fighting with Wells earlier.

He walked back to where Skye was being held and on the way ran into Boyle.

“Boyle, what are you doing? I thought you were escorting Sutton.”

“I did. He said they needed privacy. Attorney-client privilege.”

“He’s not a real lawyer. Or, I don’t know, maybe he is. But he’s also involved in our case somehow.”

“What makes you think that?”

“Because he’s the guy Amy and I saw beating up Wells.” Peralta showed him the picture. “We’ve got to get him in interrogation. Arrest him for the assault, then see if we can get him to help us find Wells.”

*****

After a long but unsuccessful interrogation, they finally let him out of interrogation and took him back to holding. As soon as he arrived, the others started staring at him.

“Ward?” Fitz said.

“You guys know each other?” Peralta asked. “And what the hell, Sutton, your real name is Ward? How could you lie to me? Are you even a real lawyer?”

Ward glared at them and motioned for them to be quiet. None of them said anything else as Peralta unlocked the cell and ushered Ward inside.

Once he was gone, Skye asked, “What are you doing here?”

“Coulson sent me here to get you out,” he said.

“What about Simmons and me?” Fitz asked indignantly.

“He was going to come get you two himself, but we had to abort that plan.”

“Why? What happened?” Skye asked.

“They arrested me for assault. May and I tried to bring in Wells, but he managed to escape, and the NYPD has pictures of May and me fleeing the scene.”

“So Coulson and May are just going to leave us here?” Skye said.

“Their priority has to be finding Wells and taking him into custody,” Ward said.

“But how can they? They don’t even have the tracking device,” Simmons said. “It’s sitting in the evidence locker.”

“There’s still the smaller version in the lab -” Fitz said.

“But it has a much shorter range,” Simmons interrupted. “It would only be able to find him if he were a few feet away.”

“I don’t know, but they’ll figure something out,” Ward said.

“What about a lawyer?” Fitz asked. “Should we ask for one?”

Ward shook his head. “If you don’t have a lawyer for them to call, they’ll find you a public defender, and we don’t want to bring more people into this. Coulson will sort all of this out.” Ward gave them all a look. “Just don’t tell them anything. Not about you, or why you were there, and definitely not about Wells. We just have to wait.”

*****

“We’ve been chasing this guy all day, but we’re getting nowhere,” Santiago said. “We need to split up and widen our search.”

“Agreed. He’s probably not going back to his apartment now that he knows we’re on to him. Why don’t we check out his work, any known associates, see where he may be hiding,” Peralta said.

“What can I do?” Boyle asked eagerly.

“Go back to his apartment building. Maybe one of his neighbors knows something.”

The neighbors did not know much about Wells, but Boyle enjoyed chatting with them. A few slammed the door in his face when he asked, but there were a couple of older women who seemed excited to have the company. One woman invited him in for sponge cake and tea.

“Maybe another time,” he said gently.

He was climbing the stairs up to the next floor when he passed by a beautiful Asian woman. She was dressed all in black and seemed to radiate confidence and strength. He paused to watch her and noticed that she was heading towards Wells’ apartment. She looked a lot like the woman in the traffic cam photo who Peralta and Santiago had seen assaulting Wells.

He drew his gun and crept down the hall to Wells’ apartment. The woman was crouching in front of the door, trying to pick the lock. Boyle slowly raised his gun and pointed it right at her. “Freeze! NYPD! Hands where I can see them. You’re under arrest.”

*****

Boyle stared at the woman sitting impassively in front of him. “You might as well tell us the truth because we already know everything. We have enough to get you for assault and breaking and entering. The only thing that can help you now is to give up Wells. He may be your friend or boyfriend or co-conspirator, but you’re the one sitting in jail right now.” He watched her face particularly carefully when he said boyfriend, but she did not react.

“There’s no place left for him to hide,” he continued. “With or without your help, we’re going to find him. We’ve already talked to the temp agency where he works and been to his girlfriend’s place in Queens. It’s only a matter of time before we catch him.”

On the other side of the observation window, Diaz rolled her eyes. “Boyle’s not getting anywhere with her.”

“I know,” Peralta said. “It’s like trying to interrogate a statue. Or Holt.”

“I’m going in,” Diaz said. “I can get her to talk.”

Boyle did not even try to protest when Diaz entered. He just stood up and retreated back to the observation room while Diaz sat down across from the suspect and stared at her.

“Sorry for pulling you out of there,” Peralta said.

Boyle stared at the two women in the interrogation room. “I know I should probably be upset about that, but the truth is, I’m strangely turned on right now.”

Peralta made a face. “Okay, you have problems.”

Diaz stared at the woman intensely. She was sure that she could get her to talk. She just needed time to get into her head. Unfortunately, when the woman finally spoke, she said the four words every cop hated to hear.

“I want a lawyer.”

Diaz stormed out of the room and back into the observation room.

“Nice job getting her to talk,” Peralta said.

“Shut up.”

But Peralta was not paying attention to Diaz anymore. Instead he was staring at the suspect. “Is she talking to herself?”

The woman did seem to be mumbling something. Peralta turned the speaker back on.

They could barely hear her, but she was definitely talking. “They brought in another detective. I wasn’t going to get anything out of her.” Pause. “Understood.”

The three detectives exchanged a confused look. “Who is she talking to?” Diaz asked.

“I don’t know,” Peralta said, “but this case just got even weirder.”

*****

This time, the agents all knew to keep quiet when May was brought in to holding, although Simmons gasped when she saw her.

“Another one of your friends, huh?” Peralta said. “Aww, that’s sweet. The whole gang’s back together again.”

Once he was gone, they all turned to May.

“So how are you going to get us out?” Simmons asked.

“That’s not why I’m here.”

“What?” Skye asked.

“Everything is going according to plan.”

“Some plan,” Fitz complained. “We’ve all been arrested. Simmons and I have been in this jail cell for hours.”

“Hey, I’ve been stuck here longer than you guys,” Skye said.

May silenced the others with a look before they could protest any more. “Coulson will take care of it.”

*****

“What is going on with this burglary case?” Holt asked.

“We haven’t had any luck tracking down her lawyer,” Peralta said, slamming the phone down in frustration. “I’ve been calling, but no one answers.”

“Excuse me.” A middle-aged man in a suit approached them. “I need to speak to your captain.”

“I’m Captain Holt. And you are?”

He flashed a badge. “Agent Coulson with S.H.I.E.L.D. You’re holding five of my agents. They were brought in this morning in connection to a burglary case.”

“Your agents are under arrest.”

“Those charges will be dropped. It was all part of our investigation.”

“Your investigation?” Peralta could not keep his mouth shut. “They were interfering with our investigation.”

“S.H.I.E.L.D. has taken over that case,” Coulson said. “We have Mr. Wells in custody.”

“Wait, what?”

“You should be receiving a call soon from the Police Commissioner,” Coulson said. Inside Holt’s office, the phone rang. “That’s probably him. I don’t mind waiting.”

While Holt answered the phone, Peralta glared at Coulson. “So you’re with S.H.I.E.L.D., huh? Why is S.H.I.E.L.D. interested in a little Brooklyn burglary case anyway?”

“That’s classified.”

When Holt returned, he said, “I was just ordered to drop the charges and release your agents into your custody.”

“What? Captain!” Peralta protested.

Holt silenced him with a look. “Who are your agents?”

“Skye, Fitz, Simmons, Ward, and May.”

“Well I know we have the first four,” Peralta said. “Is May the scary woman who doesn’t talk?”

Coulson smiled a little. “That’s her.”

Peralta led him back to holding. They all perked up when they saw him.

“Time to go,” Coulson said.

“You got him?” May asked.

“Yes.”

“What about us?” Fitz asked.

“S.H.I.E.L.D. has secured your release. All of the charges will be dropped.”

“Oh, thank goodness,” Simmons said.

“Great, but was it really necessary for us to sit in jail for an entire day?” Skye asked.

Coulson gave her a look. “We’ll discuss that later.”

Boyle hurried to catch up with them as they walked out of the precinct.

“Um, excuse me, excuse me, May?” May stopped and turned to face him. “I’m Detective Charles Boyle. I was interrogating you earlier.” She still said nothing, just stared him down. “I just wanted to say that it was a pleasure interrogating you, and I was wondering if you’d be interested in having dinner with me sometime. I know an excellent Lebanese-Thai fusion restaurant not far from here.”

Skye started giggling, and Ward glared at her. May did not respond. She just started walking away, and the others hurried to follow.

“Sounds like you made quite an impression,” Coulson told her.

May just gave him a look.

*****

“So what happened?” Skye asked when they were back on the bus. “I’ve been in jail all day.”

“Well, we had to abandon our initial plan to track Wells from the last known crime scene using FitzSimmons’ device after they were arrested. May and Ward were able to corner him at his apartment, but he escaped, and then he was also arrested. At that point, May and I realized that we might not be able to find Wells before the police. So we arranged it so that she would be brought into the precinct as well. When they questioned her, we were able to find out where the police had been looking for him. Then I retraced their steps with the mock-up detector from the lab. Fortunately it didn’t take long to find him.”

“At first we thought May was there to break us out,” Fitz said.

“We couldn’t do that. It’s important that S.H.I.E.L.D. maintains good working relationships with other law enforcement agencies.”

“But we stole their case,” Skye said, “and we never told them what was really going on.”

“We couldn’t tell them the truth. We couldn’t risk Wells finding out that S.H.I.E.L.D. was after him. With his powers, if he had gone on the run, it could have been years before we found him again. The important thing is that we got him, and we’re taking him to the Sandbox where they can keep an eye on him.”

“Too bad we have to fly to the Sandbox tonight. Otherwise May could go on a date with that little detective,” Skye teased.

“He really seemed quite taken with you,” Simmons said. “What happened when you were in interrogation?”

May looked almost amused. “Nothing. He talked, and I stared at him.”

Coulson smiled. “Sounds familiar.”


End file.
